We previously posted about Susanna Clarke, author of the (wonderful) Regency-set fantasy Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell, being an F.O.J., but Alert Janeite (and Brontëite) Cristina of BrontëBlog sent us a link from Ms. Clarke’s site in which she is more specific about her enjoyment of Jane.

What are your five favourite books, and why?
Emma by Jane Austen. It is the cleverest of books. I especially love the dialogue — every speech reveals the characters’ obsessions and preoccupations, yet it remains perfectly natural. Emma lacks many of the qualities that one would imagine a book needs to make it compelling. True, some fairly dramatic things happen (a young woman is torn between an illicit romance which may make her happy, and her duty which will surely make her miserable) — but the heroine manages to miss pretty much all of them — so the reader does too. The central conflict and romance is not in the least melodramatic, but it is absolutely gripping. And none of the characters is malicious. Even in Jane Austen there is usually one character with a little wickedness, but here there is only very ordinary vulgarity and selfishness.

[. . .]

Who are your five favourite authors, and why?
Jane Austen who got as close to perfection as anyone can.

We think this part bears repeating:

The central conflict and romance is not in the least melodramatic, but it is absolutely gripping.

That’s the genius of Jane Austen in a nutshell: making the everyday extraordinary.

Now that the Editrix has been outed as having Minions at her command, all she wants are some sharks with frickin’ laser beams attached to their heads! No more chocolate till we get the sharks! Throw us a bone here!

In its first week of wide(r) release in the U.S., PRIDE AND PREJUDICE was seventh at the box office, grossing $7.2 million over the weekend. And Premiere magazine thinks Keira Knightley will get an Oscar nomination for her performance.

Alert Janeite Kira (not Keira, DOWN fanboys!) wrote to tell us that THAT Keira is on the cover of the December issue of Vogue magazine, with an accompanying story in which she talks a little about P&P.

And for those still on a post-cinematic high from the film who can’t quite understand why anyone could possibly dislike the film, Rebecca Mazzei in the Detroit Metro Times does a pretty good job of summing up the sense of disappointment and dissatisfaction that some of us (not all, we hasten to add!) have experienced.

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE finally came to my happy little suburb, so my husband, myself and another couple left the children at home and treated ourselves to an afternoon at the movies. I wanted to share my, uh, first impressions.

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We heard from the U.K. publicity folks, and here’s a list of the cinemas in the U.K. and Ireland that will include the American ending beginning tomorrow.

Odeon – Mezzanine (Leicester Sq)

UCI – Dublin (Tallaght)
UCIFilmworks – Manchester
Odeon – Liverpool (City Centre)

Vue – Cardiff
Vue – Belfast
Vue – Edinburgh Omniplex

Showcase – Leeds
Showcase – Glasgow
Showcase – Bristol

UGC/Cineworld – Birmingham Great Park
UGC/Cineworld – Sheffield

Looks like it’s time for another history lecture from Professor Mags. Class will come to order. Dorothy, please write the names of the tardy students on the board.

“You have to understand, in that period, women were disenfranchised,” Sutherland tells The Early Show co-anchor Hannah Storm. “They lost the right to inherit property. They had to get married. Otherwise, they had nothing. They were in the poor house.”

Sadly, no!

From Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, Vol. I Ch. XIV (14):

“She has one only daughter, the heiress of Rosings, and of very extensive property.”

Just saying.

Looks like we will have to lecture on fine literature as well…good thing we have tenure here at AustenBlog U (Go Fighting Janeites Snarks!)

His wife is two-time Academy Award nominee Brenda Blethyn, who Sutherland calls “exquisite.” And notes the role of long-suffering husband is not the way he plays the part of Mr. Bennet.

“He’s a husband who just adores and loves her. His life is built on having sex with her. It’s just beautiful. Absolutely it is. It’s just bliss.”

Sadly, no!

From Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (is there an echo in here?), Vol. II, Ch. XIX (42):

Had Elizabeth’s opinion been all drawn from her own family, she could not have formed a very pleasing picture of conjugal felicity or domestic comfort. Her father, captivated by youth and beauty, and that appearance of good humour which youth and beauty generally give, had married a woman whose weak understanding and illiberal mind had, very early in their marriage, put an end to all real affection for her. Respect, esteem, and confidence had vanished for ever; and all his views of domestic happiness were overthrown. But Mr. Bennet was not of a disposition to seek comfort, for the disappointment which his own imprudence had brought on, in any of those pleasures which too often console the unfortunate for their folly or their vice. He was fond of the country and of books; and from these tastes had arisen his principal enjoyments. To his wife he was very little otherwise indebted, than as her ignorance and folly had contributed to his amusement. This is not the sort of happiness which a man would in general wish to owe to his wife; but where other powers of entertainment are wanting, the true philosopher will derive benefit from such as are given.

Again, just saying. Looks like we didn’t have to lecture much after all; Jane did the job for us admirably.

And yes, you in the back, this WILL be on the test.

(Thanks to our Janeite Spy for alerting us to this interview.)

ETA: Kurt Loder of MTV also needs a smack upside the head with the Cluebat of Historical Rectitude.

The Jane Austen Society of America’s Eastern Pennsylvania-Delaware Valley Region is selling Jane Austen-themed holiday cards. The cards have a sepia-toned drawing of Jane Austen holding a sprig of holly on the front, and the text reads, “Wishing you all the gaiety that the season can bring.” There are ten cards to a package priced at $10 U.S. plus shipping and handling.

Full disclosure: the Editrix is a member of this JASNA region; however, if another region was selling the cards and asked to have them linked we certainly would do so, so why be shy?

And come to think of it, check out all the goodies for sale by various JASNA regions. One-stop holiday shopping for the Janeites on your list!

If you’re in southern California and longing for a ball, you’re in luck!

The Lively Arts History Association of California is sponsoring a Jane Austen Evening on Saturday, January 21, 2006, at the Pasadena Masonic Lodge, and a tea before the ball. There also will be two pre-dance classes to learn the steps.

Tickets for the tea are $10 and for the ball are $25. Tickets for the ball only will be available at the door unless they sell out; sounds like you’ll want to register in advance.

(Via the Austen-L mailing list)

Alert Janeite Robin sent us this link a while back but we forgot to post it till now (Dorothy’s bookkeeping has been really slipshod of late). A new completion of The Watsons is available in the U.K. (couldn’t find it on Amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com).

Do these journalists have no researchers?

The Editrix is shamed to confess that her hometown newspaper is responsible for perpetrating the following:

Four years before she died at age 57, Jane Austen wrote a revealing letter to her sister Cassandra in which she extolled the rewards of being single.

She said she didn’t mind being a spinster because “I am put by the fire and can drink as much wine as I like.”

Actually the quote is about getting older (and is one of our favorites): “By the bye, as I must leave off being young, I find many Douceurs in being a sort of chaperon, for I am put on the Sofa near the Fire & can drink as much wine as I like.”

But, seriously: age 57? Where the heck did THAT come from? That’s not even something one can blame on a typo. It’s not even close. And it’s not like that information isn’t easily available with a simple Google search.

Those in the Philadelphia suburbs might be pleased to read another article that appeared in today’s Daily Intelligencer, which is unfortunately not available online, that talks about the continuing interest in Jane Austen. The writer was intelligent enough to seek out Austen scholars such as Professor Jan Fergus of Lehigh University and members of JASNA (the Editrix’s region, which is why she was alerted to this article) who spoke of their affection for Jane Austen’s work with taste and eloquence.

We post this in the knowledge that Certain Parties have wanted to see it…

The latest issue of the Jane Austen Centre at Bath’s e-mail newsletter came out today, including a link to an interview with Matthew Macfadyen that was included in the latest issue of Jane Austen’s Regency World magazine. We liked the ending, where he tells the Janeites in the most gentlemanly sort of manner possible that he is taking some time off–and may read some more Austen during his break. (We recommend Emma, as Mr. Macfadyen may recognize himself in a certain country gentleman.)

The public has spoken: we received the following press release today.

Pride and Prejudice re-released with Alternative ending

Last week saw the US release of Universal and Working Title’s hugely successful film adaptation of Pride & Prejudice. What followed was a phenomenal wave of British press and public interest in debate about the extended ending that has never been released to UK audiences.

On Friday 25th November, United International Pictures will release this extended version in selected theatres across the UK and Ireland.

Producer Paul Webster said, “We were absolutely delighted in the continued interest in Pride & Prejudice and are excited about the opportunity to show the US ending to the British public.”

We’ll try to find out which theatres will show the extended version.

ETA: The list of theatres will become available next week. We’ll let you know as soon as we hear.

ETA: Alert Janeite Michele A. linked to an article from the Daily Mail in the comments.

We know that we should be more charitable about the new film bringing a great deal of positive attention to Jane Austen’s work, so we shall put aside our well-tended persona of Spinsterly Curmudgeonliness to point out some of the articles that have sprung up in its wake.

The Seattle Times provides some stronger stuff for those hooked by the gateway drug of the film. It’s a pretty representative list, from serious criticism to the Jane Austen Mysteries.

USAToday has an article about Kirstin Olsen, who has written a two-volume, 800-page encyclopedia called All About Austen. We find this astounding.

Details on Austen’s world are scattered, so research led Olsen to universities, the Library of Congress and the Internet. She located experts on pens, vehicles, optics and dress with a goal to synthesize information and present it in entertaining fashion.

We were amused by an article in the LAist from someone who was spoiled not wisely but too well before her viewing of P&P3…

But there was one line in her review that stuck with us throughout the entire movie:

The film’s single false note comes in a post-wedding scene on a balcony at Pemberley Hall that’s unfortunately reminiscent of “Sixteen Candles.”

And unfortunately, since we’re big fans of Sixteen Candles and the other Brat Pack-era films like The Outsiders, St. Elmo’s Fire, The Breakfast Club, et al, it was hard to wipe away that image of Molly Ringwald’s Samantha and her beau, Jake, sitting cross-legged oogling each other across a lit birthday cake. When we watched the denouement in Pride and Prejudice, all of a sudden we could hear Long Duk Dong across the English moors…

Now, there’s a new take on the UnAusten Coda: Imagine half-dressed Darcy, the worse for a couple of bottles of claret, chasing Lizzy around saying, “Oh sexy girlllllllfriennnnnnd…”

We are rendered speechless.

A company offering mobile phones to students has hired Professor John Sutherland, professor emeritus of English Literature at University College London, to offer subscribers text message summaries and quotes from literary classics.

[. . .]

Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” soliloquy is rendered: “2B? NT2B?=???”. At the end of Romeo and Juliet, “bothLuvrs kill Emselves,” while Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice concludes when “Evry1GtsMaryd.”

*curls up in fetal position, weeps*

The Biography Channel will be airing all six episodes of the 1995 miniseries of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE on Friday, November 25, from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Lori Smith wrote to tell us about her weblog, Following Austen, in which she will tell the story of her month-long trip to the U.K. last summer to visit various sites related to Jane Austen.

(And yes, the Editrix WILL finish her travelogue one of these days!!!)

The St. Paul Pioneer Press has an article about the Minnesota chapter of JASNA, which is, like many JASNA chapters, expecting an increase in their ranks from the new film. Whether or not they hang around, of course, is another matter!

I first encountered the group six years ago, when a late-1990s explosion of Austen films led to a faddish surge in membership — of rather the wrong kind of women.

(”There were some who didn’t care to read the books” is how one of the members put it at the time, speaking with the politely frosty reserve typical of the Georgian tearoom.)

It is our experience that there is always a percentage of new Janeites created with each new adaptation, some of which become Janeites for life. Welcome to them!

The signs say that as you enter Hampshire, by the bye: Welcome to Jane Austen Country.

The Boston Herald does a tour of “Jane Austen Country,” including Hampshire, Bath, and several of the settings for the new P&P film.

Chawton in Hampshire, an hour southwest of London, is where Austen actually spent most of her life, though it is not featured in the movie. The Jane Austen’s Home & Museum (www.jane-austens-home-musuem.org.uk) is a modest two-story brick home located in a village of thatched-roof cottages. Here Austen penned “Pride & Prejudice,” as well as “Mansfield Park,” “Emma” and “Persuasion.” Her writing table and letters are on display.

Highly recommended!

Baldrick Dorothy, our cunning plan to poison the minds of America against P&P3 clearly did not succeed, as it pulled in an impressive $2.8 million at the box office this weekend despite being on only 215 screens nationwide. Damn you! Damn you all to hell!

For those of you in the U.K. whose diet is a trifle cheese-deficient, there’s an online petition demanding the Return of the Snog, at least for the DVD. The BBC says the scene was taken out because the British test audiences hated it. USAToday reports what the Evil Editrix heard from several independent sources but scrupled to post previously as she thought it a bit inflammatory: many in the audience at the JASNA AGM laughed out loud at the scene. (Thanks to Alert Janeites Lorraine and Sumita for the links.)

Clearly we’re just a bunch of purist cranks, so those of you who lurrrved the film, hie yourselves to Rotten Tomatoes, a site that syndicates many film reviews from all over. The current ranking is 91% Fresh. Wallow in the mushy tomato goodness.

And thanks to Alert Janeite Kirsty for sending us a link to so much Darcy you’ll probably pass out from it.

The producers of the new adaptation of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE like to boast that their film is the first big-screen version of the book in 65 years. We begin to think there is a reason for that. Two hours cannot really tell the story with any complexity or completeness; it is a Cliff Notes, Readers Digest Condensed Version of Jane Austen’s story, with regrettable “modern” touches that add little of value to the severely truncated story.

However, we have been scolded recently for dwelling upon the negative in relation to this film, so let’s start out with what is good. (more…)